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Pirate looking for extensive critique!

This is going to be my first post here, and I'm pretty shy about it because I've been wanting to work up the guts to join for a long time, and finally did today. I want some really honest critique, and since I don't get much of it from Deviantart I figured here is a good as place as any to start.

This is a recent painting I finished. I'm mostly wanting critique about the coloring. It's bothering me that every painting I do looks like I attacked it with the dodge and burn tool in Photoshop, which is not the case. I don't intend to do it, but it looks really bad and I'm not really sure how to break this nasty habit. Any suggestions to make the skin look more natural? Any other critiques welcome as well.

The head seems kind of funny, but I can't place why exactly. It seems sort of like it's floating in front of the body rather than attached for some reason. The eyes seem a little high, I think. His right hand seems rather flat, and the edge seems to blend a bit into the wrist. His other arm (and the leg on that side) seems to be shrunken quite a bit more than perspective requires. There also seems to be an unexpected turn just past the shoulder, and there seems something odd about the structure of the elbow.

I'm not really sure what his left hand is doing. It's certainly an unorthodox way to hold a sword, and I would actually expect him to drop it. Moving down, I don't see much problem with the torso, but I think you've got the knees a little high. I assume they're just above the cuffs of the pants, since the calf seems to start at about that point.

That's about all I can see right off, although I'm sure others might be able to tell you a good deal more.

"Skill is the result of trying again and again, applying our ability and proving our knowledge as we gain it. Let us get used to throwing away the unsuccessful effort and doing the job over. Let us consider obstacles as something to be expected in any endeavor; then they won't seem quite so insurmountable or so defeating." - Andrew Loomis

The head seems kind of funny, but I can't place why exactly. It seems sort of like it's floating in front of the body rather than attached for some reason. The eyes seem a little high, I think. His right hand seems rather flat, and the edge seems to blend a bit into the wrist. His other arm (and the leg on that side) seems to be shrunken quite a bit more than perspective requires. There also seems to be an unexpected turn just past the shoulder, and there seems something odd about the structure of the elbow.

I'm not really sure what his left hand is doing. It's certainly an unorthodox way to hold a sword, and I would actually expect him to drop it. Moving down, I don't see much problem with the torso, but I think you've got the knees a little high. I assume they're just above the cuffs of the pants, since the calf seems to start at about that point.

That's about all I can see right off, although I'm sure others might be able to tell you a good deal more.

Oh man, I really needed a good critique on the anatomy too haha. I didn't use ANY references when drawing this, and with a weird perspective like that I was absolutely doomed. Sad thing is I still couldn't figure out what was exactly wrong even after I finished, but every point you said is probably some of the thing that probably would've helped a lot. And some of those things I didn't notice! Thank you so much. I might try and go back eventually and alter some of the anatomy and do a comparison to see if it helps any. If so, I'll possibly post it here and see if anyone else sees a difference.

Definitely seek out reference, it'll help a lot in the long run. Also, something that might help is laying out some rough perspective to help keep things on track. At the very least, take a separate layer and lay out the horizon line and a quick, seat of your pants floor grid. I find that helps me a lot, there are a few recent hand-drawn examples of what I mean in my sketchbook.

I'll be keeping an eye out for your next update, see where you take it.

"Skill is the result of trying again and again, applying our ability and proving our knowledge as we gain it. Let us get used to throwing away the unsuccessful effort and doing the job over. Let us consider obstacles as something to be expected in any endeavor; then they won't seem quite so insurmountable or so defeating." - Andrew Loomis